Smart Homes in Dubai: 14 Best Smart Gadgets & Devices in 2018

The world had come to a stage where everything is getting smart such as smart cities, smartphones, smartwatches and smart cars.

Life is going fast-paced and technology is taking big steps every day to make humans life easier, more comfortable and more convenient.

Moreover, artificial intelligence is so advanced today that robots are receiving citizenships. Sophia, world’s most advanced humanoid robot, became a Saudi Arabian citizen in October 2017, to be the first robot to receive citizenship of any country. Which means that we had seen several years ago in Will Smith’s movie “I, Robot” can come true soon, not the whole movie script as we hope. Until this happens, we will be thankful for what we are having present-day.

Dubai: A Dynamic City turning Smart

And as we are living in Dubai, a colorful dynamic city with a vibrant lifestyle, and it’s developing day by day into becoming a smart city under the vision of the leader and the governor of the Emirate, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum.

Dubai is witnessing consistent steps into turning it into a sustainable smart city, it’s also encouraging and supporting the acts of preserving the environment and making life smarter and easier especially in the field of housing development and real estate.

Gadgets for Your Smart Homes in Dubai

Smart homes are growing into a trend, and there is an increasing demand for smart devices. Everyday technology-related companies bring more smart devices and gadgets, choices are so many and confusing. Thus, to make it easier for you, here’s a list of the most useful and productive devices:

1- Amazon Echo

Price: $99.99 / AED 368

The second generation comes after 3 years of the release of the first generation- of the well-known hands-free speaker that you can control with your voice to do many things,. Play music, make calls, set alarms, send and receive messages, and much more through connecting to Alexa Voice Service, also, you can use the Alexa app to control your Alexa-compatible smart home devices.

This version presents an aux-out jack, it can fill the room with a superb sound quality for whatever you want to play, it also has a new decent design with attractive different looks. It has improved microphone that can hear your voice from distance and even while having noise with the dedicated improved noise cancellation technology.

2- Amazon Cloud Cam

Price: $99.99 / AED 368

It’s everything you need to make your home safe. Monitor your home in 1080p full HD to see everything the moment it happens, watch live video streams clearly in the dark. Communicate with your household through the built-in mic and speaker anytime. Moreover, customize your own alerts to get notified of the events that matter to you.

It also offers free cloud storage, and it can be installed easily with simple steps, also, its app works on Android and iOS.

With “Zones” option, the camera neglects motion in certain areas that you specify, so the camera can focus on other areas and reduce the unwanted recordings. Amazon Cloud Cam also works natively with Amazon’s voice AI Alexa. It specifically supports the Amazon Echo Show, the Echo Spot, the Amazon Fire TV and Fire tablets. With these devices, you can ask Alexa to show you your Cloud Cam’s video stream anytime.

3- Lifx Mini Wi-Fi Smart Bulb

Price: $39.99 / AED 147

A color-changing smart bulb providing all colors, bringing vivid color, soft white and more control to your home, all by Wi-Fi. It offers brightness of 800 lumens from a power draw of 9 watts which means it saves much more energy when it’s compared to normal incandescent. It can be controlled via using voice with Google Home, Apple HomeKit, and Amazon Alexa, also, it supports IFTTT.

The app of this bulb presents many great features such as scheduled fades and the ability to cycle lights through pastel shades. In addition to, the great feature of Day & Dusk which provides 4 lighting presets that simulate the natural progression of light throughout the day.

4- Philips Hue White Bulb LED Starter Kit

Price: $69.99 / AED 258

This kit will help you wake up and sleep naturally, create the ambiance you like with warm white to cool daylight. It’s provided with recipes to read, relax, energize and concentrate. Control it remotely via iOS and Android apps, and with your voice with Google Home, Apple HomeKit, and Amazon Alexa. Also, can be controlled via IFTTT.

It’s the best solution for anyone interested in smart lighting, offers the ability for automated turn on and off, and dim up and down with 800 lumens from a power draw of 9.5 watts, so it’s a power-saving smart lighting bulb.

5- Ecobee4

Price: $203.49 / AED 748

A smart thermostat to help you manage hot or cold spots in your place. It can read temperature and detect occupancy to ensure comfort in rooms that matter and help save energy using s remote temperature and proximity sensor. Also, it comes with built-in Amazon Alexa Voice Service for full hands-free control and ability to perform multiple tasks. Additionally, it has a responsive touchscreen display that you can control it through it, and also offers mobile and web apps with the same features in both.

Ecobee4 can be integrated with Amazon Alexa, Apple HomeKit, Samsung SmartThing and IFTTT.

6- August Smart Lock, HomeKit-Enabled

Price: $119.95 / AED 441

Turn your smartphone into a key. Lock and unlock your door, and keep track of who comes and goes. Use your voice to control it via Amazon Alex, Siri or Google Assistant.

August Smart Lock is a smart addition to your home, it’s nicely designed and has a durable hardware, on the top of that, it can be easily installed, after making sure that your deadbolt is compatible with it.

It provides a mobile app works on both Android and iOS, and it gives you the ability not to only lock and unlock your door through your smartphone but also doing this automatically based on you and your smartphone proximity to it.

7- Nest Hello

Price: $229 / AED 842

Your smart doorbell, see who’s knocking the door 24/7 and never miss a thing. It delivers HD clear and crisp video even at night with night mood. Nest Hello can recognize people and send you alerts even if the person didn’t ring the bell. Talk and listen through the built-in mic & speaker or contact with your visitors through pre-recorded messages.

With Nest Hello you can have a live feed of whoever on front of the door from phone or computer, and when a motion is detected, a person is seen or a loud noise is heard, Nest Hello can notify you by push alerts or emails.

The most advanced thing about it is the facial recognition feature “optional feature”, which enables you to have a database of your family and when they are spotted by Hello Nest, it will notify you.

8- Belkin WeMo Mini WiFi Smart Plug

Price: $29.99 / AED 147

Control your home from smartphone or tablet. It uses your existing Wi-Fi network to provide wireless control of lamps, heaters, fans, and more, with no hubs or subscriptions needs, just plug and control using the free Wemo app, also, set automatic schedules for any device that’s plugged in. Control it hands-free with Amazon Alexa & Google Assistant, it’s also integrated with Nest. It’s the smart home switch you will need to automate anything you plug in it, turn on or off the heater, the lamp or anything you wish, it’s affordable, easy to you and setup, smaller than before and secure.

9- Lutron Caseta In-Wall Wireless Smart Lighting Kit

Price: $159 / AED 585

Smart switches, schedule your home lights to turn on and work so your family come back to a lit home always. Lights can automatically adjust with changing seasons. Works with Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa, Nest, IFTTT and Apple HomeKit.

It’s an in-wall smart switch that enables you to take control of your home lights, switch on, switch off or just fade them. It is also providing some good feature such as geofencing which allows the lights to turn on or off based in you and your location and proximity to the device, and security mode which automatically cycles your home light to make you seem as you are at home while you aren’t.

The app which works on Android and iOS is advanced and easy to you and gives you the ability to integrate other smart devices in your home and control them easily with few steps.

10- D-Link Wi-Fi Water Sensor

Price: $97.91 / AED 360

Save money with D-Link Wi-Fi Water Sensor. Receive alerts on your phone whenever water leak is detected. It’s easy to set up and to use.

It features on cable with long twisting leads embedded, unlike the other sensors which you several cables and the range can be extended.

It works with no batteries, just plug it into the wall and it will do the job, it has an audible alarm and mobile alarm whenever it senses flooding. Furthermore, it works with IFTTT

11- Neato Botvac Connected Robot Vacuum

Price: $699 / AED 2570

The smartest robot vacuum, control it either through your smartphone or via controls located on the robot itself, also, it works with the Neato app for iOS and Android, so you can start, stop, and pause your robot, even when you’re not at home. Compatible with Amazon Alexa, Google Home, Neato Chatbot for Facebook, and IFTTT. It has a huge cleaning power, It can clean up to 5000 sq. ft. per cleaning cycle.

Neato Botvac Connected is D-shaped and provided with Wi-Fi. Using the easy-to-use app, you will be able to start, schedule and steer your Neato Botvac Connected simply and with ease. It uses a laser-assisted navigation system, which does the job perfectly to sweep away all the dust, hair and whatever on the floor. Also, you can choose between 2 modes: Turbo – Eco, Turbo is for making it runs with its maximum power and Eco mode is a power-saving mode that makes it runs quieter and a bit slower, still it gives great results.

When it finishes cleaning it drives itself back automatically to the docking station to recharge and it will notify you.

Neato Botvac Connected is equipped with an improved lithium-ion battery and also a manual mode that lets you navigate it back and forth like a RC Car toy.

12- Lutron Serena Remote Controlled Shades

Price: $346.66 / AED 1275

Automated shades controller is a nice feature you can add to your home, makes your life more comfortable and effortless. It’s easy to set up, you can control it simply with Siri and Apple HomeKit.

It can be considered the best remote controlled shades in the markets now, with few easy steps to install and a simple app. It has some advanced feature such as Geo-fencing-based automation and opens/ closes at certain scheduled times.

Lutron Serena Remote Controlled Shades can be integrated with other home gadgets which is a great addition, for example, it can be integrated with thermostats and light. The battery can last up to 4 years and it’s easy to access and change as it’s fixed in the body of the product.

13- Nest Protect (2nd Generation)

Price: $119 / AED 438

Smoke & CO smart alarm device, with a friendly human voice it gives you an early warning. It checks its batteries and sensors hundreds of times a day. And it’s the first alarm that uses Sound Check to quietly test its speaker and horn once a month. Control it via the phone app and have alerts which you can also hush.

It’s the advanced second generation, comes in a slimmer refined design, with a handy in-app alarm silence feature to turn off the alarm remotely. Also, you can control it and check it through your mobile phone or your account on nest web page.

Second generation of Nest Protect is square-shaped with rounded edges, and a ring of colorful LEDs to alert you to the device’s status.

Additionally, it can work without WiFi giving audible alarms, but with WiFi, you can enjoy more features. It can be integrated with other nest products and IFTTT

14- Netgear Arlo Pro

Price: $249.99 / AED 915

The new generation for security monitoring from NetGear works for indoors and outdoors with a rechargeable battery that lasts up to 6 months and wide-angle lens with night vision mode.

it can be integrated with Samsung SmartThings and IFTTT, also it offers mobile apps for both Android and iOS.

Enjoy the 2-way audio to be able to communicate with whoever at your door or in your backyard. It’s also provided with motion and sound detection which can initiate a built-in 100-decibel siren to scare whoever sneaking into your place.

Time to make your home in Dubai smart

Once you are interested in one or more of these gadgets, it’s easy to purchase them while you are in Dubai, you can order them online, some are available on online stores such as souq.com and noon, some you can buy from Amazon.

It’s time to add a style to your home, give it a future twist, and share with us your experience of living in tomorrow.

About the Author: Eslam is an enthusiastic blogger currently living in Dubai and working for fam Properties. He admires writing on diverse topics including travel, lifestyle, leisure, technology, business, and news, driven by his passion for exploring and experiencing new perspectives.